Mango & Tomato

9/8/14

Kimchi 2.0 + Kimchi Pancakes Recipe

It has been almost a year since the first time I've made kimchi! It was time to make it again! I had a large Napa cabbage at home that needed to be used, so why not make kimchi? Once again, I used Joe Yonan's recipe from Eat Your Vegetables. You can see the recipe here. I did make two little changes to the recipe inspired by Fabiola from Not Just Baked: I added 5 radishes and 6 scallions.

Once kimchi was ready, I decided to use it to make Kimchi Pancakes!

Kimchi Pancakes
Makes ~ 6 pancakes

Ingredients
1 cup flour
3/4 cups water
1/4 cup liquid from kimchi
1 egg
1 cup kimchi, chopped
vegetable oil
low sodium soy sauce
scallions, chopped
sesame seeds

Directions
1. In a bowl mix together flour, water, kimchi liquid, egg, and chopped kimchi.
2. Heat a skillet and add enough oil to cover the bottom of the skillet. Using a 1/3 cup measure form pancakes and allow them to cook for 4-6 minutes on each side until they are golden brown.
3. Mix together low sodium soy sauce with fresh scallions and sesame seeds for a dipping sauce.
4. Serve kimchi pancakes IMMEDIATELY topped with fresh scallions and a side of the dipping sauce.

Thoughts: these were great. I love savory pancakes, and kimchi added intense flavor to this dish. You really must serve/eat these immediately because they get soggy as they sit around. Clearly, using more oil would make these crispier. Apparently adding a bit of baking powder to the batter will make pancakes crispier too. Thanks for the tip @KoreaFoods!

Stay tuned for another recipe using kimchi later this week (or next week), but in the meantime try these ideas:

Oatmeal With Kimchi & Fried Egg

Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Kimchi

Chinese Eggplant & Kimchi Fried Rice

Kimchi Fried Rice

What to eat when you are sick

9/4/14

Sabra's Mango Peach Salsa as a Marinade for Shrimp! #SalsaLove

Morning! It's Thursday...which means we are sooooo very close to the weekend! Cannot wait. It also means that there are two more week nights when you may want to make a super fast dinner that tastes great and is relatively healthy. That's exactly what my recipe for Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Sabra's Mango Peach Salsa, Pineapples and Scallions Over Orzo will let you achieve. It'll take you longer to say the title of the recipe than to make this dish ;)

This is the second recipe I'm developing using Sabra's salsa. You can read all about my awesome trip to Bakersfield sponsored by Sabra and the first recipe I created: Sabra Salsa Burger with Peaches, Avocado & Sriracha Mayo.

Make sure to check out Sabra's special website for their salsa line where you can find videos of farmers singing to tomatoes, coupons, sweepstakes and recipes.

You can eat salsa directly out of the container, add it to cheesy dips, puree it into gazpacho or add it to mac & cheese. In this recipe I decided to use Sabra's mango peach salsa as the base for my marinade! Why? Well, it has great flavors and added sweetness to the marinade. Paired with horseradish and lime juice, the flavors really popped!

Sweet & Spicy Shrimp with Sabra's Mango Peach Salsa, Pineapples and Scallions Over Orzo
Serves 2

Ingredients
1/2 cup Sabra's mango peach salsa, plus more for serving
1 tablespoon horseradish
juice of 1 lime, divided (1/2 for the marinade, 1/2 for orzo)
10 peeled and deveined shrimp (I left the tails on)
1-2 cups cubed pineapple
6 scallions, white parts only, cut into 2" pieces
olive oil
1.5 cups cooked and cooled orzo
1 tablespoons chopped cilantro
extra lime wedges for garnish

Directions
1. In a mini food processor puree 1/2 cup of mango peach salsa, horseradish and 1/2 of the lime juice.
2. Pour the marinade over shrimp and let it sit for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

3. My original idea was to make skewers: this was my attempt. HOWEVER, I did not realize that the pineapple chunks were thicker than the shrimp. So when I went to sauté the skewers, the shrimp did not touch the skillet: FAIL. I ended up sautéing shrimp, pineapple and scallions sans the skewers in olive oil until the shrimp were cooked through and pineapple chunks were caramelized.

Notes: make sure to brush off the extra marinade before cooking the shrimp. ALSO, you may need to take the shrimp out of the skillet before pineapple is fully caramelized in order to avoid overcooking the shrimp.

4. Dress orzo with olive oil and the remaining lime juice and mix with cilantro. Serve sautéed shrimp, pineapple and scallions over orzo with a few spoons of mango peach salsa in the middle and a few lime wedges on the side. Yes, I like to arrange my food in a pretty pattern ;)

I really liked how this dish turned out even though I failed on the skewer idea. You can serve the shrimp hot, but I also liked them as leftovers straight out of the fridge.

Disclosure: Sabra compensated me for recipe development. All opinions are my own.

9/2/14

What To Do With Ground Chicken: Antipasti Chicken Balls In Spicy Tomato Sauce

It's back to normal after a relaxing 3 day weekend of seeing friends, eating out, attempting to take naps (2 out of 3 failed) and cleaning my kitchen for the #kitchncure project. You can check out my progress here.

I haven't edited photos for the two recipes I made over the weekend, but luckily I have a great recipe to share with you that I made a few weeks ago: Antipasti Chicken Balls In Spicy Tomato Sauce. So what are you waiting for? Go grocery shopping, pick up the necessary ingredients and make this recipe for dinner tonight!

Ground chicken can be somewhat boring, but by adding a few ingredients you'd normally find on an antipasti platter, you get flavorful, moist (ugh I hate this word!!!) and can't-stop-at-just-a-few chicken balls.

What To Do With Ground Chicken: Antipasti Chicken Balls In Spicy Tomato Sauce
Makes ~ 15 balls

Ingredients
chicken balls
4 marinated artichoke hearts, chopped
4 sun dried tomatoes, chopped
6 oil cured olives, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 pound ground turkey
1 egg
1/4 cup panko crumbs
salt & pepper
olive oil

sauce
2 14.5 ounce cans diced fire roasted tomatoes
1-2 teaspoons sugar
1 chipotle pepper in adobo, minced
1-2 tablespoons of adobo sauce

garnish
fresh basil, chopped

Directions
1. In a bowl, combine all ingredients for the chicken balls other than olive oil. Using a cookie scoop form uniform balls. I ended up with 15.
2. Heat olive oil in a skillet with deep sides and brown all ball on all sides. You may have to do this in batches.
3. Remove the balls from the skillet and add all ingredients for the sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil, and then turn the heat down and simmer for 5-10 minutes, mashing the tomatoes in the process.
4. Add the balls back into the sauce making sure to spoon the sauce over the balls. Cover the skillet and allow the balls to cook through by simmering them in the sauce for 15 minutes.
5. Serve garnished with fresh basil.

These were awesome! I bet they would freeze really well....but I ate them all!

What's your favorite thing to do with ground chicken?

8/27/14

Are You A Baller? No Worries: Just Make Curried Cheese Balls!

Sometimes cookbooks unexpectedly show up at my front door. There are worse things in the world! Most of the time I look through the books and right away decide whether I'll keep them or donate them. When I received a preview copy of Michelle Buffardi's Great Balls of Cheese cookbook, I knew I'd keep it. First of all, it is an adorable size. Second of all, it has cute photos. Thirdly, it has recipes with CHEESE! Who doesn't love cheese?

I'll admit the book sat on my coffee table for months. Finally, this past weekend I decided to make one of the recipes. It wasn't hard to choose which recipe to try first: Curried Cheese Ball called my name! Not only did it have curry (duh), but it was encrusted with one of my favorite nuts ever: pistachios!

It was also an excuse to use the newest kitchen toy I splurged on!!!

The recipe below is copied directly from the book. The only changes I made was to leave out the onion and to form the mixture into a log and then into 3 balls instead of making one giant ball. BALLS!!!

Curried Cheese Ball(s)

Serves 15 to 20

Some people think they don't like curry powder; they assume it's spicy--but it's spiced, not spicy. If you have those kinds of guests at a party, just call this a cheese ball and don't mention the curry until after they've eaten a whole bunch and want to know the source of the unbelievable flavor.

Ingredients

16 ounces cream cheese, softened

1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese

1/4 cup chopped dates

1 tablespoon finely chopped sweet onion

1 tablespoon mango chutney (optional)

1 1/2 teaspoons mild curry powder

Pinch coarse salt

Pinch cayenne pepper (optional)

1 cup chopped unsalted pistachios, toasted, for coating

Crackers or crudités, for serving

Instructions

Using a stand mixer or a bowl and a spatula, mix together the cream cheese, cheddar, dates, onion, mango chutney, if using, curry powder, salt, and cayenne, if using, until combined. Form the mixture into a ball and cover with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Before serving, roll the cheese ball in the pistachios to coat.

Serve with crackers or crudités.

This was a great recipe: incredibly easy to make, delicious and huge quantity! I've been eating this for breakfast with mini bagels or Wasa crackers.

Have you ever made a cheese ball???
Disclaimer: I received a copy of the book free of charge but was under no obligation to blog about it and was not compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

8/25/14

My New Kitchen Toy Splurge & Ina Garten's Chocolate Chunk Blondies

After years of thinking about a KitchenAid stand mixer and hoping that KitchenAid will just send me one (I'm a blogger y'all....kidding...not totally), I finally did it. I SPLURGED and bought one for myself. Because if I don't treat myself, who would? This was sort of an impulsive purchase...even though I've looked at several models over the years and posted several links on my FB page getting my friends' opinions, I've never REALLY seriously thought about buying one...after all, I'm not much of a baker. But then people said it did not matter: I will just find uses for it.

Plus, they are SOOOO pretty. SOOOOOOOOOOO, earlier this month I was watching a show on QVC and they had a new model of the KitchenAid stand mixer for a great value in a zillion colors. I sort of wanted a bright yellow one, but theirs was really light, so I went with my standard favorite kitchen color: RED.

How gorgeous is it??? I'm still thinking about what to name it ;)

I used my stand mixer for the first time this weekend when I made Ina Garten's Chocolate Chunk Blondies from her Foolproof cookbook. I've made several recipes from this book in the past, and every single one was a success. This was no different.

Ina Garten's Chocolate Chunk Blondies from her Foolproof cookbook
Ingredients

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 1/4 pounds semisweet chocolate chunks, such as Nestlé's

Shout out to Madecasse for sending me a sample of their wonderful pure vanilla extract. It has an intoxicating sweet scent and was a great addition to the recipe.

"The beans for this extract are hand-cultivated on the northeast coast of Madagascar.
Two-fold "Baker's Secret" formula made with 2x the beans of regular extracts."

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour an 8 x 12 x 2 inch baking pan.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar on high speed for 3 minutes, until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the vanilla, then the eggs, one at a time, and mix well, scraping down the bowl. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda and salt and with the mixer still on low, slowly add flour mixture to the butter mixture. Fold the walnuts and chocolate chunks in with a rubber spatula.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake for 30 minutes exactly. Don't overbake! A toothpick may not come out clean. Cool completely in the pan and cut into bars.

Ta da! Clearly I could not wait until the blondies were completely cooled. They smelled too good. So I took out a chunk and ate it warm with a cold cup of milk. DIVINE. Even though I used large chocolate chips instead of chocolate chunks, they melted beautifully and made this such a decadent dessert. Also, using Kosher salt added a great contrast to the sweetness of the dessert.

This was another successful recipe by the Barefoot Contessa.

Once the blondies cooled, they became thinner and more solid. They were still awesome, but I preferred them warm and gooey.

And guess what? They are wonderful to share with friends. Cut into pieces, wrap in parchment paper and tie with a bow.

Happy Monday!!!
Other recipes I've made from Foolproof:
Ina Garten's Carrot Cake Recipe from Foolproof Cookbook
What to do with a Boneless Leg of Lamb? Ina to the rescue.
Love Chickpeas But Tired of Hummus? Ina Garten Can Help!
What to do with White Beans? Ina to the Rescue

8/20/14

Play With Your Food: Watermelon, Tomato & Cucumber Skewers

There are so many serious, heartbreaking, disappointing and just sad things happening in the world. Sometimes, the smallest things can brighten your mood, so go ahead and buy yourself flowers, or put on your favorite perfume, or eat a piece of dark chocolate, or have a mini dancing party, or play with your food! These Watermelon, Tomato & Cucumber Skewers are not going to solve all of life's heartaches, but they will make you smile. Plus, they are easy to make, fun to eat, and taste delicious!

Play With Your Food: Watermelon, Tomato & Cucumber Skewers

I used a small ♥ shaped cookie cutter, but you can simply cut your watermelon into cubes.

For the tomatoes, I used mini versions of zebra tomatoes, but you can use cherry or grape tomatoes.

I also used fresh basil!

Basically all you need to do is skewer watermelon, tomato, cucumber and basil in an appealing design. Then go ahead and drizzle the skewers with a bit of olive oil and season with kosher salt.

That's it!

If you don't like the idea of the skewers, simply mix all the ingredients in a bowl and eat with a fork.

This is a great easy to make and attractive appetizer to serve at summer parties!

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